As the CEO of Consolidated Restaurant Operations and its seven chains and 5,500 employees worldwide, John Harkey’s job is never boring.

“I’ve enjoyed being involved in things where I can have an impact,” he told staff writer Danielle Abril. “I certainly believe on the restaurant side we’ve made a difference in keeping people employed and building an environment that, while challenging, is rewarding.”

Harkey, a 52-year-old Brownwood, Texas native, serves on eight different boards and has been in charge of leading numerous companies spanning from investment firms to law firms.

“I did not wake up one day and say, ‘I want to build a restaurant company,’” Harkey said. “But I enjoy the people, and I enjoy the challenges. It’s a business where you’re relevant to everyone.”

What are the rebranding plans at El Chico?

El Chico has been around since 1940, so there have been lots of transitions in Mexican food since then, from taquerias to more traditional hacienda types. We started our rebranding effort about a year ago to go to a clean, crisp mix of traditional and contemporary Mexican form. Rockwall is the first one remodeled in Dallas-Fort Worth. One is in Texarkana, and remodeling is underway for Wichita Falls and North Richland Hills. We’ve now gone to a fresher look, although we’ve got the traditional design, which positions the brand to pay homage its historical roots. We’ve kicked off a program to allow managers to purchase stores, so we’re sort of in a refranchising program right now. So, as those deals are consummated, those units will be repositioned and rebranded as well.

What are the expansion plans for your concepts?

This year we’ll open nine restaurants.

El Chico is expanding globally. We’ve opened in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Cairo, Egypt; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and we have two more in construction in Dubai. Additionally we’re in final discussions with South Korea for a location, and we have designed a fast-casual called El Chico Express, which opened in Saudi Arabia this year. That will expand to India and Asia, where there’s a premium on small footprint.

Cantina Laredo was part of El Chico when we acquired it, but it wasn’t initially intended to be our growth brand. Now what has happened is that niche, gourmet modern Mexican, is a tremendous growth segment. The brand has just exploded. So, we’re looking at Boston, Washington, D.C., Manhattan, N.Y., Alabama.

III Forks has modest growth – about a unit or two a year. We recently signed an agreement with the Middle East. The first restaurant opening there is Silver Fox, which is like a neighborhood III Forks.

What are some of the challenges CRO faces?

The new national health care legislation is a big challenge. We received a welcome reprieve when the start date was delayed for a year. As a company, we will create close to 500 jobs this year. However, a lot of those people are part time, so health care is certainly a challenge. Always in our industry commodity costs are a constant challenge. We’re constantly looking at where you get the right quality beef and from which packer to make sure we deliver quality and consistency, and we’re able to get the supply. As you expand, it’s harder and harder to get that supply and you have to contract forward to ensure the supply chain.

What are you doing to face those challenges?

We provide health care to our employees, but we’re working through the transition of that. We’ve met with numerous different insurance consultants to talk about devising what the plan is and would be.

We also have great relationships with our suppliers, and we’re willing to commit to services because we have the ability to forecast. We know what restaurants are coming on, and we know dining patterns of our guests, which makes a difference for the supplier.

How do you keep your concepts relevant?

The goal is not to be trendy. We want to be consistent, and we want to deliver guest experience and a good price-value relationship. You don’t do it by being trendy and reacting quickly; you get it by hiring extraordinary people serving service excellence and exceptional food.

What have been some of CRO’s major accomplishments?

When I began, we were only El Chico. We expanded from one brand and gone from coast to coast in the U.S., gone overseas to the Middle East, Europe and are about to head to Asia. So, it’s been a pretty dramatic transformation. It’s been exciting, but it’s a very different company from where we started.

Do you serve any boards or work with other organizations?

I’m the director of Energy Transfer Equity. I’m on the board of Leap Wireless, and was involved in negotiating the deal with AT&T. I’m also on the board of Circle 10, Loral Space & Communications, Baylor Health Care Foundation, Emisphere Technologies and am chairman of the board of Regency. My goal is to develop an interesting life experience, and I think I’ve been able to do that. So it goes from restaurants to boards to technology to nonprofits.

What are your goals for CRO?

We’ll continue to grow and provide a wonderful work environment for employees and deliver a great guest experience for our customers. We are probably going to transition to more of a franchise-type organization, which will allow a little quicker growth. We’re also going to look at some addition acquisitions, which we should know about within six months to a year. We’re also looking to sell a couple brands. What we’re looking to do is shift our mix and reshuffle some of our brands.

Our primary growth will be outside the state of Texas, and our primary growth vehicles will be Cantina Laredo and III Forks.

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